Costa Mesa Cuts Remaining Arts Grant Funds : Budget: The City Council withholds $87,500 allocation, blaming a weak economy.

The self-described “city of the arts” has scrapped all city funding for arts grants for the year. Further, Mayor Sandra L. Genis said that arts grants probably will not be reinstated “in the foreseeable future.”

In a unanimous decision, the City Council on Tuesday killed the $87,500 arts-grant allocation for 1992-93, citing the economy.

Arts grants typically have gone to local groups to fund outreach programs, including music workshops for students and classical-music presentations for senior citizens. The move was part of a series of actions taken to help offset a projected deficit.

“All you have to do is pick up the paper and see how everyone is struggling budget-wise,” said Genis, an outspoken opponent of government arts funding. “I don’t believe that government’s job is to be involved in every facet of your life.”

Martin Benson, artist director of Costa Mesa-based South Coast Repertory, said he was saddened, but not surprised, by the decision.

“There have been a lot of rumors that the money for the arts was in jeopardy,” said Benson, who has lobbied the city previously to maintain arts funding. SCR has received some city money for outreach in the past but has not depended on it.

Benson added, “It is sad (that) the arts are thought by some to be frivolous.” In his view, they form “an absolute cornerstone of society. “

Tuesday’s action was the latest in a flurry of cutbacks in recent years aimed at arts in Costa Mesa, which uses the epithet “City of the Arts” on many city signs, brochures and other materials.

Last February, the council cut in half--from $175,000 to $87,500--the amount of money earmarked for arts grants. That action was also taken to help close a budget gap.

A few months later, that reduced allocation was frozen by the council. Various groups that had applied for funding never received any money.

The freeze resulted in the cancellation of the Arts on the Green, an annual outdoor festival of music, dance, theater and visual arts. It forced many groups to scramble to find funding elsewhere or to go without.

Sally Wilson of the Costa Mesa Art League, which in the past received 95% of its outreach budget of $10,050 from the city, said the latest cuts may jeopardize a student art show slated for spring.

“I do not know the status at this point,” said Wilson, gallery director for the league. As a result of previous reductions, the group curtailed many offerings, including scholarships awarded to local students.

The Santa Ana-based Pacific Symphony, which received a $4,000 grant for music workshops in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in the past, didn’t even apply for funding this year.

The council’s vote left many in the arts community disappointed and even angry.

“The (council’s) attitude has been extremely negative toward the arts,” said Irene Hajak, chairman of the city’s Cultural Arts Advisory Committee. “We are pretty disgusted.”

Hajak said the committee, which for years has helped dole out the grants, did not send out applications this year. In fact, the board has stopped meeting on a regular basis. Hajak questions the city’s intent.

“We don’t know whether we exist any more. . . . Their attitude is they would like us to disappear and not bother them,” Hajak said. “We haven’t been told to go away . . . (but) the implication is there certainly.”

City Manager Allan L. Roeder said that the committee is still in existence and that some members have expressed a desire to take a hiatus because of the current economic climate.

As to whether arts grants will be reinstated in the future, members of the arts community and city officials seem to agree: The future is not bright.

“Seeing that I don’t see any changes in the economic outlook, I would say it would not be in the foreseeable future,” Genis said.